Back to the good, old times

And oh, I love this! I really, really love this. For, "Doctor Who" is back to its very best -and despite its certain flaws and shortcomings, there's no denying that yesterday's Series Four premiere was an absolutely brilliant start to a new season of a smilarly brilliant show that's never been more promising. Cos this was...superb. At everything. Be warned, hereby, that the following is PACKED with spoilers and fangirling and non-censored, non-objective blazonings, so if you don't know "Doctor Who", or don't wish to know "Doctor Who" or don't want to know more than you already do - you might want to avoid the latter parts of this article. And the photos. I'm still slightly nonplussed, though, and can't express myself as properly as I should - but with good reason too. This weekend's been amazing, but a bit of a toll on a poor fangirl's heart. Lost for words and bleary-eyed and all. As exhausted as you can be from enthusiasm only. First there was the extremely pleasant suprise of "P.S. I love you", which proved all the critics wrong and turned out to be a beautiful, emotional, excellent piece of Gerry-film. And second, there was the live appearance of my favourite band Queen on Al Murray's "Happy Hour" talk show, where they performed their brand new single "C-lebrity" to standing ovations - from myself as well, who was only watching it on youtube, and that's saying some. The song as such is an archetypal stadium rock anthem with loads of drums and choir work and clap-along rhythms. Brian May's got a couple of fantastic new riffs, almost as good as in the Queen heyday, along with and an impeccable style. As always. Whereas Paul Rodgers made a surprisingly heartfelt effort not to resemble Freddie and instead commit a vocal achievement of his own. He was great. But most of all, of course, Brian and Roger confirmed that the band Queen is still going strong (and rockin' on!) and that was such a pleasant sight for sore and Freddie-missing eyes, I have no words to describe it. For the first time since "Made in heaven" they're releasing new material; that's not solo-work, not another best-of, not some things they dug up from an old suitcase and had to remix; but a gloriously fresh, funky, fabulous album from the world's greatest band. Truly a remarkable event in the history of rock - with the efforts of three "old men" around the age of sixty, I do think that qualifies for some celebration. And did I mention, Freddie would be proud? Hope he's looking down on them and contributing in the only was he can: by keeping watch over his legendary legacies, his making, his band. Which lives on - and not without him. I find the spirit of Freddie Mercury rests steadfastly over the whole set creativity they display now. And, hey, they're going on tour! Might just be magnificent!

Which is, again, another fine word to describe "Partners in Crime", the selfsame new Doctor Who adventure, that marked the start of a whole new era. Post-Martha, post-Master, no Jack. Wide area of opportunities; a Doctor on his own with much emotional baggage and a desire for change. In one of the finest scenes, at the very beginning of the episode, we finally get to see the extent of his personal state, and his loneliness, when he is babbling away to himself about some technological trouble that's occured, then looks up and finds himself all alone in the console room. Next, the camera's zooming out to reveal the actual, abhorringly empty space around him and you can't help but pitying the poor man. So very, very much. Also, this scene - in its simplicity - clearly illustrates the sadness he must feel after losing all his prior companions and his arch-nemesis/best-buddy (who might just return, we hope) and we cross our fingers that the first stories of this series might bring some smile back to his face and relieve him of his solitary travelling. No disappointments there, then. But first and foremost, the episode itself: an exciting, pulsating, tension-filled cliffhanger with great dialogue and lovely imagery of David Tennant. Guh. Nice suit, too, my favourite. One grand actor proving he can still pull off his equally grand role, without problem, and his trademark gestures, looks and comments were all there. Along with the big grin. Missed the grinning, haven't we? Add some pop-cultural references and an unusually perfected Murray Gold soundtrack, and you're already half way towards common approval. The Evil Lady (played with calculating coldness by Sarah Lancashire) was mean as a Bond-villain, with mellow voice, red lipstick and überstylish glasses, and her outfit was to die for. Literally. Nice office builing too. And she had men with big guns tagging along after her; so cool. Her main pursuit and scheme, forming the basis of the plot, was altogether a bit silly - unfortunately - providing some dorky jokes and typical Russel T. Davies-slapstick. But I had no trouble forgiving that when her final experiment materialized itself. Did we ever have a cuter guest appearance on a show than the Adipose? Little, white lumps hopping about, saying "weee!", and waving their little hands in glee? I melted! In addition, we got elevator-chases, stairway-chases, empty street run-arounds and car-chases, kidnappings, interrogations, proper crime fiction investigating and the closest thing DW's ever been to a "24"-style torture sequence. Clever extras, cunning details. They even managed to squeeze in the death scene I've always been waiting for: mad woman falls off a roof. Hurray! Quite nice to see Bernard Cribbins again, as he has one of the more interesting minor characters so far. And the annoying family relations has been toned down to the meagre minimum of one angry, yelling mother.

However, and from the very first glimpse too, there was no guessing who were to be the main event of this story. The Doctor might want to brace himself, for into his life storms Catherine Tate, our lucky charm; bringing entertainment back to the world of Doctor Who, as it seems. I am aware that not all fans are too content with her return, some even dislike her a lot, but as for me - I am filled with admiration. Of course, I am as biased as they come, because she's my favourite comedienne, one of my favourite actresses and she's made fun of Craig the Clown in a scetch where she starred opposite Craig the Clown. (Another Bond-reference, and this one's better.) Here, she was straight back in character as Donna Noble; the peculiar, but brave woman who must be saved by The Doctor in the 2006 Christmas Special. She was the one who broke off the "Doomsday" sorrow, by suddenly appearing in the TARDIS, dressed in her wedding gown, right in front of a crying Doctor - making him, and the rest of us, cry "WHAT!?". And despite this somewhat unfortunate start; which had all viewers at the edge of despair because of her importunate and awakward first entry; she managed to work her magic during the entire Christmas Episode, so that at the end of this we were all completely besotted. Amazing woman. In "Partners in Crime", she made an impressive and quite different first appearance where she looked much more in place and altogether pretty awesome. She's unrecognizable, compared to her "normal" characteristics, and her behaviour is almost disturbing when you're used to the screaming lunacy of schoolgirl Lauren and grandma Nan. Fortunately, and this further proves her talent in my opinion, she maintains her comedic abilities and makes Donna more lovable since she's the more fun, yet she also draws a clear line of separation between her two selves; her comedy alias and her actress alias; so you never expect her to lose track and fall back to "old sins". She's much too professional to do so, plus Donna is a much too serious character for anything such to fit in. I have to admit, I won't be surprised if she goes "are you bovvered?!" once or twice, in future episodes, but I guess that comes with the territory when you're such a fan of hers. And it would be kind of incredible if they chose to include that line. For the moment, though, she's sticking with her "new job" as The Doctor's companion and she's doing it flawlessly. She's more emotional, more temperamental and more wild than Martha, and I appreciate that. As for the fashion factor, she donned three fabulous outfits (as far as I could count?) and brought the show up to a whole new level of chic, just as I had predicted. I mean, she's got three tons of bags, suitcases and hats loaded onboard the TARDIS. She saves the universe in 35 minutes of non-stop action. And Bernard Cribbins is her granddad. I rest my case. She's someone you can easily identify with, a character you can't help but love, and she's got a bit of edge; toughness enough to give The Doc a challenge. Stop him when he goes too far; starts killing millions of spiders and such. Moreover; she's got the goofy side, the sheer impusiveness that The Doctor and Rose both had in common and which made their relationship so special. Donna could never replace Rose, but as a more mature "alter ego", with differing interests but the same sense of humour, I think she'll fit in perfectly with The Doc. It was a very nice move to have them immediately define the terms for their companionship - hence, avoiding any possible innuendos of a growing love affair - and she's more tolerant when it comes to his occupation and his past.

And with regard to that; I did like the many nods to Martha, especially the compliment about her brilliance. She was brilliant. Smart, clever, pretty. Still, and my apologies if I offend anyone, she was tediously boring. That's my opinion, feel free to disagree. But the comment on their friendship being "complicated" was at least in order. "Complicated" applies to the whole of series 3, as far as I'm concerned, and I do hope for easier times to come. By all means, it was a fantastic ride, and Freema Agyeman is a lovely actress, but neither her character nor the thematics of the season was quite to my taste. That being said, I do not dread her return later on. I think she'll be a fine opponent to Donna, yet I suppose that there will be certain conflicts between them since they're so different. And yeah, I prefer Donna overall. Hands down, his woman is the most talented co-star David Tennant's ever had, apart from Billie Piper of course. And, er, speaking of which: there's no way I can review Episode One, "Partners in Crime", without mentioning THAT SCENE. In fact, I doubted I would manage to do a continuous review of this episode as a whole, because I'd keep coming back to the ridiculousness that is my own reaction when this image occured:

Now, that was unexpected. And blissfully so. I keep skipping back to this second when she turns; when you realize that the woman standing by the fence is actually Rose Tyler. In the very first episode, at a completely random point. A cameo no-one had foreseen, expected, or dared hope for. Consequenlty, we have no idea what she's doing there, and it she didn't give away much. In fact, she didn't give away anything whatsoever, nor did she speak, but the look on her face wasn't very reassuring. She looked pale and sad, and they played the "Doomsday" theme in the background. I was so shocked, I started crying. Can you believe that? I sat there, watching a clip on youtube (cough), and then I was crying. Because it's so fantastic, but it's so mischievously sly too. The carelessness of a happy Donna, encountering someone so important without even knowing it's her. Just as she's about to embark on a journey with The Doctor, the one this very woman think she's been separated from forever, and she doesn't notice. She heads off, into time and space, whilst we don't get to know - anything. And Rose just turns and fades away! Along with Murray Gold's piano tunes! It's SO not fair. In other words; it's a sly mischief well managed. For, they know exactly how to keep us tied on the rack and hence: I wait, in anxiousness, for the series finale, whilst keeping my fingers crossed for some terrific adventures in the meantime. The tendency of Doctor Who serials tend to be that they get better throughout; with a bit of a slow start, an increasingly exciting mid-term and then culminating into an explosive, mind- soul- and heart-wrenching finale. Now, considering the potenial of the episode we've just seen, my question is: how good can it possibly get? And how much too far is way too far for this poor fangirl to have her heart strings stretched and bent? I wonder when I'll be completely drawn over to the other side of mad, hysteric joy; and if this is as healthily joyous as it could seem. I think I'll try believing it is.